MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s government has begun studying the possibility of stepping in to replace Venezuelan oil program Petrocaribe if the government of President Nicolas Maduro were to fall, according to three officials with knowledge of the plan.

Discussions on how to design credits through which Mexico could sell low-cost crude and oil products to Petrocaribe clients in the Caribbean and Central America are just a few weeks old, according to two of the officials, and involve the Finance Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the Energy Ministry.